This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
A portable data processing device generally refers to a computing device capable of processing electronic data that is convenient to carry, such as a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a pocket PC, or a tablet computer. Currently, portable data processing devices generally have a built-in digital camera and have a picture taking function or a video recording function. For example, presently, most mainstream mobile phones in the industry have a built-in camera and a user may take a picture and shoot a video by using a mobile phone.
With the improvement of the hardware performance of portable data processing devices, the speeds of processors for portable data processing devices have become faster and the pixel densities of built-in cameras have increased. Thus, images taken by the built-in cameras of portable data processing devices are of better quality. Therefore, more users tend to use a portable data processing device (for example, a mobile phone) to record pictures and videos of a scene at any time and any place, especially in a scenario suitable for photo capturing.
When a built-in camera in a portable data processing device takes a picture, photography software is needed for support and the photography software invokes the built-in camera to take a picture. When the photography software invokes the built-in camera to take a picture, an image collected by the built-in camera is displayed on a viewfinder. The viewfinder is displayed in a photography software window on a screen of the portable data processing device, and after a user presses the photography button, the photography software stores the image of the viewfinder, thereby implementing a photographing function.
Currently, a photography initiation method for a built-in camera of a portable data processing device is relatively complex. In addition to photography software, a portable data processing device further has other software functions, such as telephone software functions and application programs (APP) capable of implementing other specific functions. Icons of all the APPs need to be displayed on a screen of the portable data processing device. An icon of the photography software also needs to be displayed on a specific interface of the screen of the portable data processing device similar to the icons of the other APPs, and a user needs to have multiple interactions with the data processing device before entering the specific interface during photography. Moreover, when the portable data processing device is not used for a long period of time, the screen of the device is generally locked. The screen being locked refers to when a frame on the screen is locked, and the screen is unlocked when an unlock button is pressed, otherwise, the screen is not unlocked so as to prevent an undesired operation. In most cases, a user takes out a portable data processing device to take a picture when seeing a scene they would like to photograph. In this case, the portable data processing device is generally in a screen-locked state. The user needs to perform an unlock operation first and then enter a specific interface displaying a starting icon of the photography software after multiple interactions with the computer operations and click the starting icon to start the photography software. The user then needs to focus on a target according to an image displayed in the viewfinder and click the photograph button to complete photography after the focusing is completed.
Therefore, in the existing photography initiation method for a built-in camera of a portable data processing device, many human computer interaction operations are necessary. The operations are complex and the photography speed is slow. It takes a long period of time from the starting of the operations to the completion of photograph, so a photo capturing opportunity may be missed. Moreover, after an image is taken, it takes a long period of time to store the image before a viewfinder is restarted and returns to a photographing state, so the speed of continuous photography is slow and a photo capturing opportunity is often missed.